BenQ GW2765HT Quad HD 27-inch Monitor Review

If you were to say to someone 10 years ago that you were thinking of getting a 27-inch monitor for your PC, they’d class you as insane. However, nowadays bigger monitors are becoming the norm, and the quality is increasing by the day. The GW2765HT from BenQ is a Quad HD monitor (2560 x 1440) and boasts a retail price of just under £300. Let’s see how it performs.

Design

The overall design of the monitor is typical BenQ; very smart and sleek with a gloss black bezel. Personally, I am a fan of gloss black, but they do require 10 times more cleaning than a typical matte finish.

If we move around the monitor, there are a variety of things that both impress and confuse.

First all all, we’re extremely happy to see support for DVI, VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort. An extra HDMI port would have been a bonus, but BenQ have still done well to cater for a wide range of users. As well as these, you’ll also find a line in and headphone port on the right.

Up next are the buttons for the on-screen settings menu. These are located at the rear of the monitor, which is an odd placement to begin with but as the buttons are used for different functions on certain menus there isn’t actually any writing to indicate what anything does unfortunately. They’re just blank, so you’ll have to fiddle around with them from the front to match the button up with the setting you’re trying to access. A confusing and not very well thought through aspect of this monitor.

Along the top we have the BenQ logo, as well as some air vents just below.

Moving to the front we see, once again, the BenQ logo, as well as the model number and a few of the features the monitor has to offer including HDMI support, Senseye 3 and LED.

Senseye 3 is a proprietary BenQ feature included on many of BenQ’s monitors. Senseye 3 basically aims to reproduce an enhanced image, on screen, that replicates what the human eye sees in real life.

Senseye works to improve the image quality you see by dynamically adjusting contract, brightness and backlighting to fit the viewing environment.

The overall size and weight of the monitor is quite manageable as well weighing in at just 6.9KG, making it an easy monitor to move around and adjust if needed.

The depth of the monitor comes in at around 244mm (2.4cm), so it’s not the thinnest of monitors, but definitely a good size considering you’ve got a whole 27-inches of monitor to work with!

Testing

For testing purposes I’ve played around with the BenQ monitor as a display for my Mac, as well as a monitor for my Apple TV to test out video / display quality.

First off, connecting the monitor to both my iMac was painless and simple. Just plug your HDMI cable / DisplayPort cable in to your desktop and away you go.

Once connected I got to experience the quad HD (2560 x 1440) resolution which looked absolutely stunning. The colours, fonts and images all looked incredibly crisp and smooth. Comparing it side by side with my Apple display resulted in hardly being able to tell the difference in colour, brightness and overall quality.

The experience was made even better due to the fact that BenQ have packed in features such as a blue light setting and flicker-free technology to help reduce eye strain, which if you’re on the computer as much as me is a welcome addition!

The 4ms response time is also good enough to make this monitor suitable for the casual gamer, such as myself when I feel like a quick Minecraft session.

Included with the monitor is also a line-in cable, which enables you to plug your headphones directly in to the monitor so that you don’t have to stretch down behind your PC case.

Movies looked absolutely stunning on the GW2765HT when hooked up to my Apple TV.

I tested out a few films whilst reviewing the monitor, including a few Marvel hits such as Iron Man and The Avengers. Both in full 1080p quality of course. Obviously these looked great on the display, with no lag or delays in playback.

Colours were vivid and made for an excellent viewing experience.

Unfortunately the only thing during our testing that really bothered us was the display settings menu. It’s a little difficult to navigate thanks to the buttons on the rear of the monitor.

The settings panel features a wide array of options and adjustable levels, which is great, but combined with the buttons that you can’t really see it becomes a bit of a mission to adjust things quickly. The buttons are the only part of the monitor that feel a little “cheap”, mainly due to the fact that they’re all essentially small flimsy plastic buttons with a circuit board behind (which is viewable in between the buttons).

Verdict

As with most products, you’ve got pros and cons. And whilst there weren’t many cons here, our list of good and bad points are listed below to help you make a final decision on whether the BenQ GW2765HT 27-inch Monitor is the one for you.

Pros

Reasonably priced at around £285

Very vivid colours

Incredible display quality thanks to Quad HD

Great features (blue light / flicker-free technology)

Fairly portable / ease to move

Good build quality

Easily adjustable viewing angles thanks to solid arm

Cons

Settings panel a bit of a nightmare due to button placement

Another HDMI port would enable users to hook up a couple of devices without having to switch cables all the time

All in all, the BenQ GW2765HT has been a pleasure to use. Quite possibly the perfect addition for web developers / graphic designers in need of more designing real estate, or even if you’re a movie fanatic looking for a better viewing experience.

For under £300 you can’t go too wrong, so the BenQ GW2765HT has been awarded a well-earned 9/10 and our “Great Value” award.